


al-Tayyib Restoration

by wanderingscholarlad



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Anxiety, Archaeologist Andy, Art Restorer Joe, Curator Quynh, F/F, Insomnia, Joe has a YouTube channel a la Baumgartner Restoration, M/M, Modern AU, PhD Student Nicky, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, ft Luna the cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26138350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingscholarlad/pseuds/wanderingscholarlad
Summary: The other night though, he’d seen a snippet of an art restoration video on Instagram and gone on a spiral through the linked YouTube channel. It’s a simple set up, the camera focused on a table with an art work carefully laid out on it and the restorer's hands in frame, never anything more than that. There’s usually a voice over too. Nicky’s embarrassed to admit that it's the man’s talking that's most soothing to him, more so even than the process of watching an old varnish being swabbed gently away.Nicky meets Joe through mutual friends, not realising that Joe is the man behind his insomnia prompted emotional support art restoration YouTube channel.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 70
Kudos: 622





	al-Tayyib Restoration

**Author's Note:**

> For this prompt fill on the Kinkmeme: https://theoldguardkinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/2487.html?thread=462519#cmt462519  
> Joe makes art restoration videos for YouTube (a la Baumgartner Restoration) under a pseudonym and never shows his face. Insomniac Nicky watches long, methodical canvas cleaning videos and listens to Joe's gentle voiceovers to fall asleep.  
> They meet at Joe's original art exhibition through mutual friends, and it takes Nicky a while to figure out why Joe's voice feels so comfortable and familiar. (Maybe he realises later, while they're hooking up, when Joe stops being "on" for a public audience and starts being soft?)

Nicky has got his life mostly in order. He’s doing a PhD part time and working at an independent bookstore not too far from his apartment and he likes his little friendship group perfectly well. He’s also got an extremely lazy rescue cat, Luna, who sits with him when he’s working on things and occasionally lets him pet her soft paws when she’s in a good mood. 

His apartment reflects him as a human being. There’s books everywhere, a throw blanket Quynh knitted him over his second hand sofa and plenty of throw pillows. He has a few houseplants that he’s managed to keep alive, several of them have been lightly gnawed on by Luna, but they are managing. 

He lives alone, which for the most part is a blessing, but occasionally he does get kind of lonely, particularly on the nights when his mind just will not settle down and he feels like he is too tired to sleep properly. He’s tried all sorts of tricks - both for anxiety management and insomnia. He has a little humidifier for lavender oil, a pillow spray with vetivert and chamomile, a sleep playlist and sleepytime tea. Mostly they work. Sometimes though, he has to resign himself to lying in bed, too tired to get up but too awake to sleep.

He’d stumbled across the YouTube channel half by accident, in his quest to find something, anything to space out to on one of his sleepless nights. He’s picky about what he watches when he’s feeling like this, needs something engaging enough that he doesn’t spin into an anxiety spiral, but calm and simple enough that his tired brain doesn’t have to struggle with it. He’d tried nature documentaries but they woke him up far too much. In spite of how soothing David Attenborough is, he’d always find himself frantically googling the lifespan of lightning bugs or the natural habitats of the platypus at four am in the morning when he watches any of his work. For a while, he’d been watching videos of this one guy going camping with his dog in the most bizarre conditions. The videos were hours long and mesmerising, but mostly, they made him want to visit Canada one day.

The other night though, he’d seen a snippet of an art restoration video on Instagram and gone on a spiral through the linked YouTube channel. It’s a simple set up, the camera focused on a table with an art work carefully laid out on it and the restorer’s hands in frame, never anything more than that. There’s usually a voice over too. Nicky’s embarrassed to admit that it's the man’s talking that's most soothing to him, more so even than the process of watching an old varnish being swabbed gently away. 

Nicky isn’t sure what the expert’s name is, since the channel name is in Arabic and he isn’t quite sure his google translate has done its job properly; but, he has a wonderful voice. It’s low and maybe Flemish? Nicky can’t quite place his accent other than as being vaguely middle European.

He’s thoughtful and describes the art in such a loving familiar way that it's very easy for Nicky to just sit back and bask in the comfort the videos bring. It gets to the point where they’re familiar enough to him that on bad nights, he’ll put them on and fall asleep half way through, waking up with his cheek pressed against his laptop the next morning. 

Luna, who is a grumpy old dame usually, loves the videos too. She often sits on his laptop when he puts them on, which isn’t exactly ideal for him watching them. When he’s re-watching a restoration of an annunciation of Mary for the eleventh time though, he can’t really bring himself to move Luna. Especially since at this point he almost knows the voice over by heart and is really just using it to soothe his too fast breathing and racing mind. 

Luna sits on his chest sometimes, curls up into a little knot and washes herself and purrs. She seems to know when he needs a bit of grounding and the weight and warmth on his chest is perfect. Luna purring on his chest, in combination with al-Tayyib Restoration’s videos, is enough to stop the spinning anxiety that he’s not gotten far enough in life yet or that he hasn’t done enough work on his PhD this month. Sometimes he panics about how he’s thirty and still at uni. He knows it’s fine, but sometimes when he thinks about his parents back home in Italy, and his sister the specialist doctor, he feels a bit like half a PhD in literature isn’t really enough. It’s what he loves though, and when he isn’t tearing his hair out because the novelistic form won’t become clear to him, he imagines a life of lecturing at universities and it feels like the only path that he could ever walk. It really isn’t all doom and gloom and even if he has to remind himself of that sometimes, ultimately he has got his life mostly in order. 

* * *

Quynh’s gotten him to agree to come to an exhibit opening night for one of her friends at the gallery she works in. Andy is off in Eastern Turkey for her work as an archaeologist and Booker is at home with his wife and kids, so Quynh had practically kicked Nicky’s door down with the insistence that he come with her. 

He’s relatively on top of PhD research and doesn’t have a shift at the bookstore on Friday so he figures it’ll be fun to go hang out with Quynh and drink champagne and judge art he knows nothing about. He’s been to events at the gallery before and always enjoys himself, even if art isn’t particularly his thing - he much prefers the written word. He’s doing a PhD on decadent literature after all. 

Luna twines around his ankles, miaowing loudly, as he hums along to the radio and irons one of his nicer shirts. The gallery isn’t exactly dressy, but Quynh is always so beautifully dressed and artists all seem to have some kind of inbuilt sense of aesthetic in spades. Nicky does not have an inbuilt sense of aesthetic at all. Nicky has shirts that are comfortable and hoodies that are more comfortable, and three nice-ish linen shirts for going places with Quynh. 

She’s an excellent best friend but she does have a habit of sighing at him when he comes to brunch in a hoodie for the nth time. Sue him for liking being comfortable. He always shrugs at her and they move on quickly enough but she does like to joke that she’s got the only gay best friend without a lick of fashion sense. He teases her back in equal measure over whatever nerdy thing she’s hyperfixated on lately - most recently it's been deep sea animals. 

He feeds Luna and gives her one last kiss before he leaves, planning on taking the tram to Andy and Quynh’s house before they uber to the gallery together. It might have been quicker just to meet Quynh there, but they both prefer arriving at a busy place with someone they know. It’s only about ten minutes down the line from his apartment and Quynh throws open the door with a frantic expression.

“What is it?”  
“Andy took the shirt I wanted to wear to Turkey with her and now I have nothing to wear.”

“Quynh, we both know that isn’t true,” Nicky sighs fondly and follows her through the house so he can sit on their bed and provide “helpful” commentary on the dozens of shirts Andy and Quynh share. 

“So whose exhibit are we going to see?” Nicky asks after a while of watching Quynh rummage through her wardrobe. 

“Joe - he’s new at the gallery, remember? I told you about him when we went to Booker’s for dinner - oh, this is the shirt. Alright, let me call an uber.”

“Joe - Flemish Joe? Who is an expert of medieval islamic art but also a painter?” Nicky’s trying to remember the details.

“He’s Tunisian Dutch but yes, bingo. He’s lovely, and single,” Quynh winks and nudges him and Nicky grumbles at her. She and Andy are wonderful but sometimes they do the “happy couple who think being single is the worst” thing and it can get on his nerves.

“Quynh-”

“I know, I know. You’re happy and I’m not to meddle - and I won’t, I’m just saying.”

It’s chilly out and they rush from the car to the gallery entrance, shrugging off their coats and bouncing in place to warm up as they wait for their turn with coat check. Quynh’s smiling broadly and saying hi to people, introducing Nicky as she does. He’s met a few of them and says hi back but he’s mostly trying to get a look at the art in the next room, curious about what sort of things Quynh’s friend paints. Quynh smiles when she notices and tucks her hand into the crook of his elbow, leaning up to promise that the coat check shouldn’t take too much longer. She’s right, soon enough they’re walking through the arched entryway and into a well lit gallery space. The walls are covered with canvases of a variety of sizes, some brilliantly hued, others charcoal on cream. There’s so much to take in. 

Quynh snags them two glasses of champagne and suggests that they do the rounds and look at everything once and then find Joe and say hi. They can spend more time with the art after that.

The paintings are these wonderfully abstract swirls of motion that hint at figures moving through space and Nicky is captivated by them. The paint has been layered over itself to create dimension and movement in a way that he didn’t realise could be achieved. 

The sketches are simpler, rough lines of figures and places and after a moment Nicky realises that each sketch corresponds to a finished painting and as he looks more carefully, he can see the base sketch in the paintings. Where the sketch shows the curve of a shoulder, the painting has a loving swoop of deep blue paint, layered on top of itself to create definition. 

He’s frozen in front of the blue painting, which is simply titled “A Study in Blue: No. 4”, entranced by the shape and movement in a way that he’s surprised by. He always insists he’s more of a words person but something about Joe’s art has stolen any cohesive thought he might have had. 

“Come on, Nicky - Joe’s free now, let’s go say hi,” Quynh interrupts, tugging him away from the painting, which he can’t help looking back at. He shakes himself lightly and smiles at Quynh, who is powering through the crowd in that way that only a short person can.

Nicky barely manages to set his empty champagne glass down on a table as they pass and then, he finds himself face to face with one of the most handsome men he’s ever seen.

Nicky has to pause to collect himself but Quynh is already there and talking.

“Joe, I cannot believe how exquisite everything looks,” she’s beaming at him and Nicky can’t help but join her in her enthusiasm, especially when she tugs him forward, “This is my best friend, Nicky. Nicky, this is Joe - it’s his art.”

“It’s beautiful” is all Nicky can think to say and he’s extremely glad that his brain didn’t short circuit and say “you’re beautiful” instead, even though he is very much thinking it.

Joe smiles at them both and his eyes crinkle with the breadth of his smile and Nicky feels his heart skip a beat. He hasn’t felt this giddy in years, though he thinks the champagne might be contributing to that.

“Thank you, thank you. It’s just a project I’ve been doing in my free time.”

“It’s marvellous really - the way you show people, without showing people,” Nicky wishes he was better at talking about art.

Joe grins wider, “So, do you have a favourite?” 

He’s compelled to ask, Quynh’s friend Nicky is beautiful when he talks, hands wild and eyes intent on Joe. Joe had hesitated when Quynh had insisted that she wanted to introduce them when he had invited her to the opening. He’s very happily single thank you very much. In this instance though, he might have to concede that she does have a point. The curve of Nicky’s smile when he asks about Joe’s inspiration is positively enchanting.

Quynh conveniently sees someone she hasn’t talked to in a good while and, “You two will be fine if I leave you alone for a moment?”

She’s incredibly transparent and Nicky laughs a little embarrassedly, looking down at his shoes and then back up at Joe, who has been explaining aniconism and why it’s a guiding principle of his painting style.

“I mainly work in curation and restoration, but I enjoy painting in my free time and do exhibits from time to time.”

“It’s incredibly - I’m not artistic at all, much more comfortable in the library,” Nicky admits, smiling softly as he thinks of the basement of the library at uni and the cozy armchairs he has spent far too many hours in, surrounded by books.

“Words are beautiful too - though I am more interested in poetry than academia.”

They keep being interrupted by wellwishers wanting to compliment Joe on the exhibit but Nicky finds that he doesn’t mind, the praise is deserved and Joe is so gregarious and open with everyone.

Nicky’s only known him for an hour but Joe already feels so familiar to him. Talking with him feels so comfortable. 

He almost regrets when Quynh comes back and reminds him that they really should be going soon, even though he knows that she’s right.

“We should go for coffee sometime, Nicky,” Joe says abruptly, when Nicky and Quynh turn to him and apologise for having to head home. Quynh wants to Skype with Andy tomorrow and because of timezones, it’ll have to be obnoxiously early, and as much as Nicky is enjoying himself, he’s going to see Quynh home, always will.

“Oh - I’d, I’d love that.” They swap numbers, both smiling a little bashfully at Quynh’s smug look and then Joe kisses them both on the cheek in farewell.

He’s already talking to someone new by the time they’re at the door and Nicky glances back over his shoulder at him, but he catches Nicky’s eye and waves a little.

Quynh elbows him once they’re in their uber, and laughs at the way his cheeks go pink in the lowlight.

“So much for ‘don’t meddle Quynh’,” she parrots at him gleefully, “I cannot wait to tell Andy.”  
“Just this once, I will concede,” he admits, smiling back. How could he not?

* * *

He and Joe have been dating for almost a month, have known each other for three months, when Nicky makes the connection and he’s absolutely mortified at how long it has taken him. 

Joe makes some comment about editing a video while they’re curled up having a cup of coffee on a lazy Sunday morning, and it’s like a lightning bolt of realisation. Nicky tries not to tense up. Luna is asleep in Joe’s lap and Joe is all morning cozy and calm, and Nicky doesn't particularly want to disturb the peace. Joe’s voice is pitched low and tender as he speaks, ostensibly not to wake Luna but mainly because it’s a gentle morning and he can’t bear not to be gentle with Nicky on mornings like these. Nicky’s kicking himself mentally for not realising.

“Editing a video?” Nicky asks, already knowing the answer in his heart. He can’t work out why it’s making him feel so unbearably anxious. Joe knows Nicky loves his art and is delighted by Nicky’s enthusiasm for it, why would this be any different?

“I make restoration videos for YouTube sometimes, I’ve been taking a break to focus on painting but started a new one the other day,” Joe says, completely unaware of the inner conflict that Nicky is going through.

“Oh-” Nicky really isn’t sure what to say. He tugs at his hoodie strings for a moment, glad he’s leaning against Joe and Joe can’t see the furrow between his brows. 

“Oh?”

“Is it al-Tayyib Restoration?” Nicky figures he’s got to bite the bullet at some point, may as well do it now. God, how to explain to Joe that he’d been falling asleep to his videos for months already by the time they’d met.

“How did you know? Did Quynh say something?” Joe sounds amused more than anything.

“No - I, uh, just put two and two together? I was already watching the videos by the time we met. I just didn’t connect the dots until now.”

“Oh my Nicolo, you watch my videos?” Joe sounds pleased and Nicky risks a glance up at him. Joe is smiling down at his and Nicky drops his head against Joe’s shoulder with a heavy thunk.

“It’s embarrassing.”  
“Why?”

“Because I didn’t realise it was you? Because I used to watch them to help me fall asleep? Because the restoration of the annunciation of Mary is my most watched YouTube video?” Nicky’s looking at Joe now though, smiling himself.

“Embarrassing? It isn’t embarrassing - it’s lovely. You’re lovely.”

Nicky, who is usually so comfortable with words, finds Joe’s words unaccountably overwhelming. He tugs him in for a kiss instead of answering, disturbing Luna, who yowls and makes a break for the armchair.

They can’t help it, they break down laughing. Once they’ve caught their breath, Joe pushes Nicky’s hair out of his eyes with a smile, “Now I can ask your opinion on my videos, but also I can talk you to sleep in person, since you apparently find my voice so wonderfully boring.”

“Calming,” Nicky protests, “I find your voice calming.”

Joe just smiles and holds Nicky closer, looking smug, “I’ll take it.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @wandering-scholar-lad


End file.
